Crawford no Imouto
by Nemu
Summary: Chapter 4 is up. Omi gets... involved.
1. Chapter 1 Crawford!

**Title**: Crawford no imouto

**Author**: Chisha

**Category**: Humour/romance??? Maybe.

**Warnings**: Original character inserted for the fun of it. :) Also swearing.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own any of these characters, except for Emily. Now I wish I owned a few of the others, but that doesn't change the fact that I don't. Damn.

**Author's Note**: This started out with a sleepover I had with two friends. I kept predicting things all evening, night and even the next morning, so then my name changed into "Crawford". If I was Crawford's sister? Maybe. Maybe not. But it did give me an idea for a story! Enjoy. 

**Chapter 1 – Crawford?!**

It was a day like any other, excepting the amount of boredom that had taken a hold of me. I had been driving around for a while, looking for something to do. So far, I hadn't succeeded at all. Sometimes Tokyo could be the most boring city on the face of the earth. Until I took a left turn and ended up on the road that went to the airport.

A girl who was making her way along the sidewalk caught my attention. Not because she looked nice – although I figured she could be considered pretty in a way – but because of the way she looked.

Her way of dressing made her appear much older than she was, and her hair was held up by a large, white clip. She wore a pair of thin-framed, round glasses, and her clothing was short, tight and all-business. She reminded me of Crawford; even her hair had the same colour, and her attitude was just as superior as Crawford's.  
I entered her mind out of pure curiosity and was shocked to find that she was looking for someone: a man named Brad Crawford.

_No way_.

So, I pulled up next to her until I was driving at the same speed as her quick footsteps, and opened my window.

'Konnichiwa,' I began, making my voice even lower – on purpose of course, the ladies always fell for that and would tell me anything. 'What brings you to Tokyo, miss?'

'I knew it,' she muttered in English, without slowing her pace. 'I'm looking for someone, but quite frankly, that's none of your business.'

_Unmistakably American_.

'I know,' I replied, also speaking English this time, 'And I also know where he is.'

She stopped so suddenly that my car's brakes screeched because I had to stop too.

'You know Brad Crawford?' she inquired, her brown eyes becoming slits as they took in my features with a great deal of suspicion.

'Hai. I work with him. I'm sure he'd want to see everyone who knows his name.'

_Because lately, there aren't many._

'Get in. I'll take you to him.'

She nodded curtly and got into my car without another word.   
That went on the entire trip to the hotel where Schwarz was currently renting a suite with who knew how many rooms – I hadn't really bothered to count them since Farfarello was bound to be in one of them - or bound in one of them, who knew. The silence and my curiosity bugged me, so I decided to have a little peek in her mind. I was about to go in there when a pretty scary thought struck me – even though I hate to admit it. I was sure I could compete with Crawford, but I was also sure I didn't want to. Maybe I'd better practice a little patience for a change if I wanted to keep my brains intact. Crawford would kill me if I peeked in the mind of someone who was there to see him. He would say it was none of my business. Someone who wanted to see Crawford was mostly an "ally". No, I was sure I didn't want to be killed like that, so I decided to wait and see. Or maybe I could pull the information out of her in a different way…

'Say, what's your name, miss?' 

She continued to stare in front of her. Even as she sat there, she looked cold and uninterested in her surroundings. 'I don't think that's any of your business.'

'Maybe not. I just want to know if your name is as pretty as you are.' Okay, so I lied a little. Anything to get the information I wanted.

'Nice try.'

_Kuso. Stupid bitch._ I tried to remain patient, but I usually got good results with flattery. Maybe she'd seen through my lies… even though there was no way she could have.

'Fine, then. I'll hear your pretty name some day. Can you speak Japanese?'

'Hai, I can,' she immediately answered me in rather sloppy Japanese with a bad accent. A _really_ bad accent.

'Well, if you work on that, real Japanese can understand you too,' I grinned. 

'Very funny,' she switched back to English, 'Brad Crawford will be able to understand me, be it in English, or in Japanese.'

_Still, you need to lose that accent or I'll laugh my ass off,_ I thought to myself as I hit the claxon to piss off the already irritated man in the car in front of me. The guy was in a hurry and almost exploded when I cut him off by taking a left turn past the man, who wanted to go straight ahead.  
Snickering, I checked just _how _angry the guy was. Angry enough to have me chuckling contentedly as I retreated from the man's mind.

'You're easy to amuse,' the girl observed. Her voice sounded very mature, while I was sure she couldn't be _that_ old. 

'I have to do _something_,' I muttered. 'Why are you here?'

'You can stop trying to pull information out of me, it won't work.'

I'd figured that much. I decided to just shut up and wait before she made me take a look in her mind out of pure annoyance with her attitude. If I got the chance, she'd learn how bad I could be. 

'You already fell for it, though.'

'What did I fall for?' Quirking an eyebrow, she looked at me from the side. I had to admit she looked a little cuter that way. 

I have to stop thinking about her like that. She's not like other women, she's a damned ice queen. And much too young. And Crawford's visitor.

'Who says I'm really taking you to the guy you're looking for?'

She smiled; it was a sly, creepy smile, 'I have reasons to believe you'd work for him. He never lets equals do his job. He eliminates those.'

I gritted his teeth, but then grinned, 'I said I work _with_ him. Maybe I'm the boss over him.'

Apparently, this was very funny, because she started chuckling softly. Lucky for me, it subsided quickly so I couldn't get too annoyed, and both of us remained silent for the rest of the trip.

***

Opening the door with a grin, I let the girl into the suite. 'After you.'

She walked past me without looking at me even once. She dropped the purse she had with her on the closest table and crossed her arms. Either she was waiting for me to get her to Crawford, or she was waiting for Crawford to come to her. Whatever it was, she wasn't going to move without letting someone do something first.

'Well? I don't see him here,' she snorted, the annoyance almost jumping around the room. 'But you do know where he is. Show me the way.'

'Yes, Master,' I grinned to her. I suddenly felt like teasing her; the attitude was just like most people that considered themselves equal to Crawford, and I loved teasing just that kind of person.

'Just hurry the hell up.'

'Of course, Master.' Still grinning from ear to ear, I opened a door in the suite, 'Bradley! Someone's here to see you.'   
Crawford glared at me from within the next room, as I closed the door again to avoid any other glares. The guy was as stiff and cold as always. Just like a dead body… Only this one talked and glared.   
I plopped down onto the nearest couch and rested my feet on the table. I loved the way the Japanese still westernized the furnishing of their hotels. 

The door opened, and Crawford entered, looking slightly agitated, 'Firstly, I'd rather not have you call me "Bradley", Schuldich. Secondly, you didn't have to close that door.'

'I know.' Not that it bothered _me_ much. The more trouble for Crawford, the more fun for me. 

Crawford chose to ignore me and turned to face the guest. I watched quietly; finally my patience was going to be rewarded and my curiosity satisfied.

'Sorry to keep you waiting. If he was rude in any way –' Crawford suddenly interrupted himself – a rare occasion at which I quirked an eyebrow.

'I know you,' Crawford finally said, keeping his cool.

'Yes… you do, Brad.'

I felt my other eyebrow go up as well when she called the American by his first name.

Crawfords eyes became slits as he took in all of the girl's features, then finally gazed into her eyes for a while. 'You're Emily, aren't you?'

A smile brightened up her face as she nodded, 'Yes, Brad. It's me.'

_Bah. Lots of info you two give off_, I thought agitated. Maybe a little peek in her mind… No. Not before I'd tried all other possibilities. I'd rather kill myself than risk Bradley's revenge.   
An unexpected move from Crawford pulled me out of my musings – he walked over to the girl and embraced her. He freaking _embraced_ her. The man without feeling, the man who probably didn't even think much, embraced a woman? What the hell was this all about? Whatever it was, it looked too ridiculous to me. I couldn't help it; I _had _to laugh. This didn't go well with Crawford, of course; he released her from the embrace and glared at me, his cold brown eyes piercing my own. 

'What? Can't a guy have a little fun?' I tried.

'There's nothing funny about it.'

'Yes there is. I mean… you're touching someone, and it's not someone from Weiß,' I replied, 'That's reason enough for me to laugh my butt off.'

'That's enough, unless you want to live with Farfarello for a while.'

That man knew how to threaten a person. That was the worst threat I'd ever heard. Of course, I heard it all the time, but it didn't lose its power. Once he had actually made me watch Farfarello for an entire day – in his room. I didn't want to do that ever again. I could stand working with the Irishman, but that was all.

'So… May I ask what you know each other from?'

Crawford glanced at this "Emily" for a moment, before looking back at me. I caught a moment of surprise, even though it wasn't visible in his eyes. 'I'm surprised you have not taken a look in her mind yet,' he muttered.

'I didn't look in anything,' I confirmed, 'because I figured you'd want to feel superior with your knowledge before telling me anything. So can you tell me or can I go dig in her brains now?'

Crawfords glare became a little colder – I didn't think it possible – before he answered, 'This here is Emily Crawford. My sister.'

I almost got a heart attack from that one; I'm serious. Crawford had a sister? And she'd come over to Tokyo to see him? Too scary, even for me. '_Damn_.'

'Emily, this is Schuldich. He's smarter than he sounds.'

'I'm glad you warned me,' she smiled.

Now she annoyed me even more. She had Crawford's sympathy – why else would he hug her? That was a problem. No one had Crawford's sympathy. I didn't know what to expect from a Crawford with sympathy. I'd have to keep a constant watch on him and that damned sister of his.

'May I ask how old you are?' I tried, careful not to offend anyone. 

'Ten years younger than me, that's all you need to know,' Crawford shut me up. 'Why are you here, Emily?'

I observed her carefully as she stopped smiling. 

'They got fed up with me back home, so they wanted to kick me out. I have to admit, I reacted a little… vengeful.' With those slitted eyes of hers, I came to the conclusion that this was an understatement. This girl was as evil as her brother, no doubts there.

'Can I stay here?' she suddenly asked Crawford.

He nodded without even considering things for a while. He'd probably seen it coming and already thought it over, I guessed. So the bitch was staying? I wondered where, and entered Crawford's thoughts again to see where he was going to accommodate her. This suite only had four bedrooms, and I knew he wasn't going to put her in with one of us.

_Shimatta… You're going to pay for that, Bradley_, I cursed in mind when I found his idea of putting me in one room with Nagi. Well, better than Farfarello, but still.

'Pack your things, Schuldich. You know what to do.'

Hell yes I did. But that didn't mean I _liked_ it!

~~~

**Author's Note**: Oh hell this is so fun to write so far. POV may change, but I guess you figured out whose this is, ne? I let you guys figure it out rather than telling you. That's more fun. Ja na!  
  
**Japanese words for the uninitiated (in order of appearance)**:

Konnichiwa: Good day

Kuso: Damn/darn

Hai: Yes

Shimatta: Damnit!


	2. Chapter 2 Shopping is Fatal

**Title**: Crawford no imouto

**Author**: Chisha

**Category**: Humour/romance??? Maybe.

**Warnings**: Original character inserted for the fun of it. :) Also swearing.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own any of these characters, except for Emily. Now I wish I owned a few of the others, but that doesn't change the fact that I don't. Damn.

**Author's Note**: So far, I'm still having fun with this. I'll be going on a 2 and a half week holiday to France next week, so don't expect any updates within 3 weeks. Sorry guys, but even I need a break. I'll take my notebook with me for writing, just in case. :D

Chapter 2 – Shopping is Fatal 

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Everyone had gone to sleep, and only I remained. I was not planning on going to bed soon; I had things to think over. Today had been a confusing day, and I was not used to confusing days. Not anymore. Usually things went easy, were easy to control, no surprises. But today, one of the biggest surprises had come, one I had never expected. I had only realized at the last moment that it was indeed my sister. And Schuldich had brought her in here. 

Of course, she was probably as evil as I was at that particular moment, and I had told her she could stay, because I'd already seen myself give in to her. I cannot refuse a family member, even if she is an annoying brat. Maybe she grew up. Maybe she is not an annoying brat anymore. 

Indeed, she grew up. Most probably there were still some childhood traces left, but if need be, I could erase those easily. If SZ agreed, she would even be a good asset to Schwarz.

Hell, even if SZ did _not _agree, I mused with a slight grin.

It sure had been long since I last saw her. Years and years ago… she was seventeen now. That meant she was still going to school, but had probably already learned to drive a car. Great, I would not have to drive her around Tokyo all the time. That was a relief. 

Schuldich would be giving trouble for certain, though. That was a small problem I had to overcome. Schuldich usually gave in if you threatened with putting him in Farfarello's room, and even if that did not work, my authority was enough to calm him down.   
But… if something was bothering him, he was not so easy to control. He was much too aware of his own powers and possibilities to let an obstacle slow him down. I would just have to glare at him constantly, maybe hit him in the face a few times if he really did not listen. 

Schuldich and Nagi had been particularly quiet, though. Emily had gone into Farfarello's room to "meet" him, and had caught his knife before it hit her. I had noticed her amusement as she presented it to Schuldich and Nagi. 

Still, the two had been particularly quiet. Nagi was always quiet, of course, but when Schuldich was quiet, I had reasons to be suspicious. A quiet Schuldich meant brooding. And brooding meant trouble from the redhead. All the more reason to keep an extra eye on him. 

Finally having gone over all the possibilities, I decided to call it a day. I had an appointment at Takatori's office, and I would seriously hate to be late. He had to think we were crawling for him, so tardiness would spoil that image a little.

A little was all it took for Takatori to be suspicious, though. Probably a bad conscience.

***

'Please, Brad, take me shopping!'

I consulted my seemingly endless patience once more as I repeated for the third time, 'I have things to do, Emily. Not now. And please speak Japanese; you need to lose your accent if you are going to attend college on Monday.'

I could tell she was pouting even though I was not looking. I acted as if I was concentrating on the book in front of me, but in fact I was paying all the attention I had. Just to be sharper and stricter in answering.

She sighed, but tried in Japanese, as if it would get me to give in, 'Onegai, oniichan! Take me shopping!'

'Do not _ever_ call me oniichan.' Seriously, if Schuldich ever heard that I would have to kill him for calling me that all the time. Because I was sure he was going to. As the leader of Schwarz, I demanded respect – and I got it from all its members. Emily was the flaw in this. She could no longer call me anything she wanted.

'… Sorry.'   
She sounded sincerely disappointed, so I glanced over the pages to see how disappointed she was. The damage did not look too bad, so I looked back at the fine print on the ivory coloured sheets. 

'Onegai, Brad?'

Better. Much better. She even sounded begging. I had a vision of her whining all over me for the rest of the day, so I decided to change that before it actually happened.   
Just when she opened her mouth again, I slightly raised my right hand and put the book down. 'Fine. But speak Japanese from now on, or the deal is off. And I have to pay the Jigen Party vice-president a visit afterwards, so you will behave when we get there.'

'You're dragging me with you to some old fag?'

'Emily.'

'Hai!' She even saluted, to try and piss me off some more, most probably. Next time she was going to go in the car on her own. It was that I needed a car today, else I would never have given in.

I really hoped she would indeed behave, especially since the other Schwarz members were going to be there, too. Schuldich was gone for the moment, and who knew what Nagi and Farfarello were doing, but they would all be present during that visit to Takatori. They knew they had to.

As she went to get her purse from Schuldich's ex-room, I watched her back disappear around the door, sighing inwardly. This was going to be a long day. Why had destiny put her with me at this crucial moment in SZ's plans?

Fortunately, she was quiet for almost all of the trip to the nearest mall, so I could refill my seemingly endless patience a bit. I remembered her ability to drain anyone's patience in the most infuriating ways she could think of.   
She acted like a child at times, but only to the people she knew. Me, for instance. I furrowed my brow at the car in front of me as I took a right turn. Almost there, so we could get it all over with and get to the appointment at Takatori Reiji's office.

'Bradley?'

Something suddenly clicked in my mind as I heard her say that. It was not Schuldich who had given me that nickname. It was her, and Schuldich had just dug it up from my memories of long, long ago. 

'Hmm…' I did not see the point in actually formulating a sentence to let her know I was listening. I had never done that, so why now?

'Why do I have to get rid of my accent?'

I clearly heard the reason why. Again. She was smart enough to keep speaking Japanese to me now, as she did with Nagi, Schuldich, everyone else. Her accent was bad enough to make me have to concentrate on what she said, else I would barely be able to make out what she was saying.

'Because with an accent like that, nobody is going to be able to understand you,' I replied, squeezing the car in between two vans. 'Get out. We're here.'

Her smile made her look much younger. She sure smiled often, for someone as mean as she was.   
Why did I even bother? She was just a sister, a sister I had not seen in ages. I had done all the necessary embraces and other things that came with "having family", and now I was driving her around as if I was her sweetest brother ever. 

I was just her brother. Nothing more, nothing less. There was no bond between us like siblings in Japan always had.

'Uh… Brad?'

Since it was a sunny day, I noticed that not only I was putting on shades. She switched her own glasses for sunglasses as well; I could see her do it from the corner of my eye as she got out of the car.

'What now?'

'Can you help me with the kanji?'

At least she knew it was called kanji. That was a start. 'Of course.'

'I never got enough time to learn all that. I know some… but not all.'

'Of course.'  
I followed her through the streets, avoiding the chances of bumping into people before the chances were even there. Bumping into people was something I hated; the unnecessary contact was easy to avoid.   
She got into almost every store a girl would be interested in, burning with curiosity. I could see the happiness on her face.  
God knew where she had gotten all the money to buy all those clothes from. I noticed the only kind of clothing she bought was decent, but tight and usually short, too. Only the kind of clothing that would make her look as sophisticated and well-educated as possible.   
I guessed I was the one to blame for that. I had always taken care of my own appearance, so that I could set a certain image of myself in the minds of others. How I appeared was especially important lately, if you asked me. When dealing with certain people, you could never be too thorough.   
At least Takatori would not be alarmed by her presence that way. She was just the same as me in her choice of appearance.

I never went into any of the stores, but waited outside, observing the people around me. They were not particularly interesting; horribly predictable.

  
I glanced at my watch; almost time for that appointment. I had to get her out of this mall before she discovered even more stores and I had to carry even more bags. This was humiliating to say the least. No one here knew me, but being used like that was one of the things I disliked.

'We'll be leaving soon, Emily.'

'Hai!'

All this talking to the people in the stores had cleared away some of the heavy accent. So there was a small advantage to this wasted morning after all.

'Oh Brad! Look at that cute flower shop there! Can I go in there before we go? Onegai?'

The "ai" was a long, drawn out one that sounded too cute for her own good. If I gave her this last thing, she would be satisfied and behave when we got to Takatori's office. 'Fine.'

Again, I was left to watch her disappear into the so-manieth shop, holding the bags in both of my hands, waiting for her to emerge so we could leave.

When she finally came out, she was holding a colourful flower arrangement, and I could smell the flowers even before she got in range to tell me how nice the people in the store were.  
Too nice, if you asked me.

She started ranting as soon as I was in hearing range, 'Those guys from that shop are so nice! One of them said I looked pretty,' of course, that always did it for a girl her age, 'and he did much better at it than Schuldich, too!'

Ah, of course. Schuldich had tried something. I could have expected that. The fool always wanted information, and if not, he wanted appreciation. I certainly would have to keep an eye on that man. I could guess why Schuldich's flattery had not worked on her; she had been expecting it, knowing that if he was working with me, it could never be a true compliment.

'The blond, tall guy gave me these for free, but he was kind of a slime, if you ask me,' she rambled on about her visit to that small store, as I noted the sign that had the shop's name written on it in kanji.

_Koneko No Sumu Ie_… Kitten in the House. An interesting name, which I had to remember for some odd reason, according to my own instincts.

'The two younger guys were much nicer, not as fake as the other one. And there was this other guy, but he was a jerk if you ask me.'

So four young men running a flower shop?  
Schuldich would have to look into that one. I had to remember this spot.

'The brown-haired guy was cute, but I like the youngest, I think he's about my age. Maybe he's in the same school as me… He looked good…'

The last of her sentence was lost in a content sigh and I watched her from the corner of my eye. Was it me or was she smitten with one of these Japanese already…

~~~

**Author's Note: **Well, that's it… A short introduction to how Brad Crawford feels about having his sister back around him. And you can guess what's with that last thing ;)  
This is going to go so wrong, tee hee.

Misura: Yeah, for Crawford, that was an emotional moment. The guy's a total bastard, isn't he? ;) Well at least he's a cool one at it.

TigerEyes: Oneechan! I see you're reading my Weiss Kreuz stuff too now? That's cool, always love getting those encouraging reviews from ya :)

SoulFire: Ah, that's a nice, long, constructive review. I love those ^__^ I think you know why I decided to get a different POV for this chapter, hm? And yeah… Crawford embracing someone. It's totally new. That's why I just _had_ to try. There was no affection in that, hm? And yeah… Schuldich's annoying ;) A relationship between him and Em? Hm. Maybe. At least you provided me with a nickname for her now. If Schuldich wishes it, there may be a relationship between the two.

**Japanese words for the uninitiated (in order of appearance):**

Onegai: Please

Oniichan: Yes, that was a pretty daring one. A younger sister would call her brother oniichan (brother) or oniisan (big brother). Now you get why he got pissed ;)

Kanji: It's those weird Japanese characters no one can read ;) 

Hai: An easy one. It simply means "yes"  
And that concludes today's lesson.  
  
  



	3. Chapter 3 Commence Hunting Sequence

**Title**: Crawford no imouto

**Author**: Chisha

**Category**: Humour/romance??? Maybe.

**Warnings**: Original character inserted for the fun of it. :) Also swearing.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own any of these characters, except for Emily. Now I wish I owned a few of the others, but that doesn't change the fact that I don't. Damn.

**Author's Note**: I switched from SZ to Estet. Everyone uses it, even the subtitles, so why bother to freaking change it? That's right ;) Sounds better.

telepathy 

**Chapter 3 – Commence Hunting Sequence**

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Crawford was late.   
And I loved that. He was never late, and I knew he'd be agitated. Of course, he wasn't late enough to make a real difference, because he was always early, but late enough to be annoyed himself. Even _we_ were on time, and he was still not here.  
A broad grin decorated my face when I saw his car arrive. It became even broader when I saw him get out, and Emily emerged from the passenger's side. This day kept getting better and better.  
I knew he'd rather not take Emily with him, but he had to, because he had gone shopping.   
The scent of flowers reached my nostrils and I saw the broad was carrying an exceptionally large bouquet of flowers, in all colours and sizes. Now where did she get those?  
I had to suppress a fit of chuckles when they approached and the idea came to mind that Crawford might have bought those for her. Of course, that wasn't true, but it was a funny idea nonetheless. 

'Wipe that grin off your face, Schuldich,' Bradley commented as he walked past me. 

'Sure. It was never there, oh dear devilish leader,' I joked, feeling his annoyance grow with every word I said. Especially the last three bugged him.

In mind, he was cursing me over and over, and I replied with, 'My, my, Bradley, I never knew you could even spell those words! That disappoints me, I always thought you were a nice guy…'

'Schuldich.' The annoyance was dripping off his voice; it sounded like music to my ears. How I loved pestering him over and over, testing his patience. I had not found his limits just yet.

'Yes, sir,' I replied, saluting.

'Stop it, right now.'

Okay, even I knew when to stop, and this was definitely the time. Irritation was building inside the man and I didn't want him to burst. That would not be good. Especially not when that happened near Takatori Reiji. Even though that would be funny, Estet would come after us for spoiling their plans with the politician, and who knew what they'd do to us? I was sure I did not even _want_ to know.

I followed Crawford to the slide-doors that formed the entrance to the building, and I could hear Nagi and Farfarello's footsteps behind me. Quicker ones went past me and I caught another wave of flower scent as Emily caught up with her brother.  
_Her brother. Snicker, snicker, snicker…_

As soon as she did, Crawford stopped dead in his tracks and glared at her.

'Nan da?' She clearly wanted to keep him satisfied. I was pleased to hear that I could now finally understand what she was saying. 

Shop owners, how I love thee and thine Japanese… 

'Throw those away, Emily,' he barked, still slightly irritated.

'But I got them from-'

Those nice boys.  
_Which_ nice boys?

'That doesn't matter. Throw them away, you can get new ones later. _Don't_ argue with me, Emily.'

'Fine,' she pouted, and dumped the rich bouquet in the nearest trash can.

Still… which nice boys? Which boy in this stinking city could be cooler than me? Why had my flattery not done anything, while it obviously _had_ when those boys did it?  
I quickly dug in her mind; Crawford couldn't stop me anyway as long as I kept my mouth shut. Impressions of four guys, a shop called _Koneko No Sumu Ie_ and especially the smallest of the four boys trickled into my mind.  
Not good.  
She was beginning to fall for someone. I couldn't let that happen, she was too pretty for that. Well… pretty… in her own ice cube sort of way.   
If anything, it was that I hated outsiders getting near Schwarz and my territory. If there was a lady in my territory, I had to have her. Even if it was Crawford's sister. I just had to obey my predatorial instincts. No, I've never denied those, contrary to popular belief.

I glanced at her from somewhere behind, and I realized that she was indeed quite pretty. If you liked that kind of girl.

Another grin spread across my face as I started planning things to conquer the girl's heart. And if I succeeded, the boy she fell for would be angry. Very angry, if he fell for her, too. So cute.

'Schuldich.'

Ah, Nagi. My partner in crime. He was supposed to help me find out if Emily had weird talents, too. At first, he had been reluctant to join forces, even suspicious about my motives, but as always, I had managed to convince him. I could convince anyone if I tried hard enough. 

'Nani?'

He glanced around him for a short moment, as if to make sure no one was listening. 'Does Crawford hate her?' He sounded hopeful.

I could have just said "yes", but I needed to keep him satisfied, and I knew he expected me to check, first. And so, I entered Crawford's mind. Something I did rather often, even though it wasn't always that pleasant. 

'No,' I retorted, 'but she knows how to drain his patience very well, and he does not really appreciate it. As far as I know, he's trying to shape her so she'll do what he says.'

Nagi frowned, 'He's not going to let her join Schwarz, is he?'

I grinned, 'If that's what he's planning, he will have to answer to Estet, most probably.'

That seemed to reassure Nagi, because the frown faded and he looked at Farfarello's back as he muttered, 'Good. Then he won't do that.'

The Irishman in front of him followed Crawford and Emily into the elevator.

'Indeed, and our positions will be secure that way,' I mused, the grin turning into a happy smile. 

Nagi shook his head, annoyed with my poetic tone of voice, and stepped into the small mechanical chamber that would take us to Takatori's office, eleven floors up.

Takatori greeted us as always; calm and collected. Crawford of course did just the same, then introduced Emily as "an apprentice" or something equally silly, and Takatori directed us to a few comfortable seats.

A young man, dressed as what one would call a waiter in a restaurant, came to ask us if we would like a drink, while Takatori started talking about his plans.  
I never even listened; looking directly into the man's thoughts would tell me more than the words that came from his mouth. Besides, Crawford expected me to keep tags on the man, just in case. We needed to know his every move for our own plans.

'If it came down to voting right now, I would win for sure,' Takatori mused, muttering a thanks under his breath as he accepted the drink offered to him by the young man from earlier. 'My manager told me I have most of the people's votes on my side.'

'Of course, that was the setup, wasn't it, Mister Takatori?' Crawford replied, adjusting his glasses and making sure that he looked absolutely trustworthy.   
I knew that Takatori knew Crawford and the rest of us could not be trusted… but he did not know that even _he_ could not trust us. So, Takatori trusted us. The fool.

I wondered if Takatori could hear how Crawford sounded when he said "Mister Takatori". I wondered if it had any effect on his trust in the man. Crawford was not the type to show respect to anyone, but in his role in Estet's plans he had to. He wasn't used to it, that was why the fake admiration dripped off his voice. Personally, I would have made it sound more plausible. But I supposed this was the best our dearest Bradley could muster.

Takatori chuckled as he took a sip of his wine, then looked straight at our leader. 'Do you think that if those assassins who have been after my sons come after me, you can handle them, Crawford?'

'You can leave it all to us,' Crawford assured him. 'If they dare to go near you while we are here, they will perish before they touch you, Mister Takatori.'

That pleased the old koala; he chuckled again, though this time it sounded a little mean. 'That's what we're aiming for; complete annihilation of all my opponents.'

All this idle chatter started to bore me; I decided to commence plan Conquer Brad's Sister while Bradley entertained the koala bear.

Hey, beauty.

Emily, who had patiently been staring out one of the windows, her hands folded on her lap, suddenly tore her gaze away from the window and looked around to see who had just said that.

I saw Crawford's glasses glitter, as he kept talking to Takatori but had noticed her sudden movements from the corner of his eyes. 

Don't show them you've heard me.  
That's you, isn't it, Schuldich? she replied. As almost everyone I used my telepathy on, she had figured she could just think the words. How long have you been in my mind?

Actually, I was in Takatori's just now. I snickered mentally. 

That funny? I think I was right; the man _is_ an old fag.  
Oh, how funny. She shared my opinion about the big koala. Correction: a stupid old fag.  
She nodded invisibly; again I saw Crawford's glasses glitter as he caught the movement. I had to be careful with this conversation, else I would have a problem, starting after the meeting.

Don't show them you've heard me, remember? We don't want your niisan to beat us around the place later, ne? 

She did not nod this time, but I could feel that she understood. Now I had to be careful. I had to get her on my side and not rise her suspicion at the same time. And I had to figure out if she had the power of precognition, just like Bradley.

He bores you too, does he not? I tried.

Her annoyance came at me in waves, He's a blind cockroach; he doesn't even hear how Brad despises him and everything he represents.  
And I suppose you did hear, hm? I tried my best to make amusement sound through; it would please her, get her on my side, and I would learn more about Crawford as well. She seemed to know him pretty well even though she had not seen him in years.

Of course. I know him like the inside of my pocket. she answered. Is that so strange?

I adjusted my right sleeve as I continued, Not really, I suppose. I was just trying to get to know you.

Do you have to do that now? I'm having trouble concentrating on two things… You can teach me all about this telepathy thing of yours later, okay? After this old fag talked us to sleep.  
Witty, even though it was no lie. She had the childish urge to look at me during the conversation, as every human being on the face of the earth would have. 

Of course. It's not so hard when you're me. I'll shut up now.  
I had to give her what she wanted in order to win her over… and I had to get to know her, of course. Right now, I still had to keep a channel to Takatori's mind open as well, so I couldn't dig in hers very deep, but I could amuse myself by looking at her instead.

All those female curves are so cute… 

Even if she was still so young, she was obviously done growing up physically. Curves, curves, everywhere I looked. Exactly what a man wanted in a woman. The short skirt didn't help either. Of course, if there was another woman in here, I would not have to look at her so much to be satisfied, but for the moment, Emily did just fine.

Then I caught Crawford's glare; caught. I knew I had a problem now… But I tried to mask my surprise and looked back at Takatori, who was still babbling on and on about what he would do as soon as he was elected as Japan's most powerful politician.  
But I didn't listen. The only thing I could think about was how to fend off Bradley in the coming days.

* * * * *

Everyone was gone; I sincerely _hoped_ it was everyone. If Brad was looming around in the residence somewhere I would certainly make like the others and high-tail it out of here.   
Farfarello had gone off somewhere to hurt God again, and Nagi had wanted to buy some computer parts or something like that. I never bothered about what he was muttering while he closed the door behind him.  
Emily had gone to pick up books for college; I bet she was going to go to that shop again, too, even if it was closed. I knew she hoped the boys lived above their shop so they were home and she could talk to them. I sure hoped it was closed, anyway.

And Crawford… that was what bugged me. The day before, after the meeting, he had not said a thing while Emily went to hang up her clothes in my ex-closet. Nagi had gone to his beloved laptop again, while I had to lock Farfarello up in his padded room.

When I emerged, Bradley was there… and nothing happened.  
The tall precognitive had just been sitting there, reading his _New York Times_, and even when I sat down to watch a strange but hilarious talkshow, he had said nothing at all.   
Now that the residence was so quiet and empty, I went paranoid. He had probably not said anything yesterday because he did not want the others to hear what he had to say; I guessed that was not good either. It meant he had some pretty nasty things to say to me.

Or he just did not care, even though I was sure the lust had been radiating off me like crazy before I noticed that he'd caught me in the act. How did a Crawford react to someone lusting after his sister?   
Yes, I was _very_ paranoid. He could be in any room, watching me, waiting till I was comfortable and then come round to curse me over and over. His way of telling someone off was usually very bad.   
He would throw you insult after insult in his cold, collected way of speaking, as if he did not care at all, to try and piss you off. And then when you were finally ready to yell at him for being such an arrogant bastard, he would turn around and leave you alone in doubt; attack your leader and die, or live with the indescribable anger that he'd just triggered in you? Of course, you would always choose the last one, because the first one involved lots of pain and you valued your life as a Schwarz member.  
Finally, I chose to settle at the kitchen table with some coffee; coffee would help me relax and stay alert. Another thing was that Bradley barely came into the kitchen after 10:00 AM or before 8:00 PM.   
Feeling relatively safe, I decided to see what was happening around Tokyo, and pulled the local newspaper closer to me.  
Another criminal had been killed off without any sign of how it happened. Weiß's fault, no doubt. Probably that leader of theirs had given them another mission, they had successfully eliminated the target and gone home to receive their salaries. It made me wonder where they lived, what their hideout was.   
As I went through the rest of the news, I did not even hear Crawford come into the kitchen until he was right behind me.  
A distinct cough notified me of his presence.

I gave a scream and almost jumped over the kitchen table; I had to consult every bit of self control I had in order to stay in one place.

'What is it, Schuldich? Bad conscience?' Crawford asked me.

Whose fault do you think that is, you bastard? 

'Not at all – I just didn't hear you coming,' I tried, hoping to sound plausible enough to fend off a few of the insults that were undoubtedly burning on his tongue. After all – _I _was the only mind-reader of the pack.

'As I could have expected. I suppose you were entertaining yourself with images of naked skin and all that?'

I braced myself. The insults had started and would not end until Brad had pissed me off enough to have his own anger subside. I didn't answer. That would please him, and give him more reasons to insult me.

Crawford sat down at the table, right across from me. A short look at the newspaper before he settled his eyes on me once again. His glasses glittered ominously in the light that managed to have trickled through the blinds in front of the windows. Another insult was on its way here.

'I don't remember if I have taken the time to tell you this before,' he started, 'but Schwarz is not a night club. If you tend to like staring at a female's legs, you can go back to one of those strip clubs you must undoubtedly have attended in your earlier days.'

I clenched my teeth; this was a kind of thing he liked to use often. Of course everyone saw me as a man-whore, and I knew exactly where this conversation was headed. He was lying – of course he had told me this before, in different words.

'Of course, in those days, you must have been the one cheered for, and not the one cheering.'

Yep, there it was. The meaning was nothing I had to guess for; he was again implying that I had earned my money as a male stripper. If that were true, he would never know. Only I had the right to think of that. But I kept my mouth shut.

'Your silence confirms my suspicions, Schuldich,' Crawford continued, now fixating his eyes on the newspaper he had pulled towards him, as if I was so easy to ignore. 'In any case, I would appreciate it if you could control your lusts here in the future – we have some underaged in our group that would not really care for your predatorial glares, nor would they want to answer to them.'

I muttered, 'And what if they did? You can't stop human instincts.'

'If they would ever answer to your hunting skills, I would call it "intimidation", if nothing else.'

So far, I had managed pretty well to control my emotions, but now that I heard my "hunting skills" being degraded to a mere matter of intimidation, I felt a small sting in my pride as he said it. The man had his ways with words, but tact wasn't one of those ways.

'Now, before you consider releasing more of those lust filled glances upon Emily – or Nagi, for that matter – I want you to realize that pedophilism is not generally appreciated. Not even among the Estet staff.'

Okay, so he'd gotten his point across now. He didn't want to catch me looking at Emily like that and all that crap. But he didn't have to say it _that_ way! Contrary to _very_ popular believe, I tend to wait until someone grows up before I lust after them. This was just pure crap.

'Are you done yet, _Bradley_?' I knew I shouldn't have said that, but it could accomplish two things: _or_ he was going to quit talking to me because this was a sign of my rising anger, _or_ he was going to continue about how much he liked to hear me call him Bradley.

'Quite done, but let me tell you to remember what happens to certain German telepathic mind-raiders when they let their blood run other parts than their brains.'

Ouch. Stab in the back.

And with those words, he left, leaving me steaming mad, alone, in the kitchen. With a cup of coffee that I hadn't touched yet.  
So when he closed the door, I threw it after him, the sky-blue pottery being hurled into several directions as it shattered against the hard wood. It left brown splatters of hot coffee on the now scratched material. I left it there the way it was, looked back at the newspaper and only felt that my resolve had grown worse.  
Now that Bradley had pissed me off, I would _certainly_ get back at him in a way that he could not foresee until it was too late. I would conquer that girl and make her mine, even if it was the last thing I did.  
And hopefully piss off that other boy as well. I grinned, one of my trademark evil grins that only my opponents and victims would see from time to time. And this time, the grin was directed to my very much respected leader.

~~~

**Author's Note: **Whew. I'm glad I got that over with. Does any of you have any _idea_ of how hard it is to write an insulting Crawford? He'd never be as low as to directly call someone names right in their faces… So here's the result of that. I hope I stayed at least a little in character. Damned precognitive dickhead…  
Yeah. Chose Schuldich's POV once again, for obvious, fun reasons. ^_^

NeonAngel: There you have it, next chappie. Glad you like it.

Mistress of Darkness: It's not even my idea. Read the Author's Note above Chapter 1 to see what I mean ;)  
Misura: Yes, precognition is a bother – I can know, it bothers me a lot, too ;) Anyway, glad you like how I put Crawford in a cute position. It's gonna be even cuter, so be warned!

Setsuna: Actually, I have another fic where I paired an original character with Aya… That character is much closer to me, too. Anyway, pairing Em with Aya would be _so_ bad. He'd _never_ like her. Never.

Soulfire: And another one of those mucho appreciated long reviews, buddy! ^_^ Yes. Bradley and shopping. The only way you can get a man like that to be overwhelmed is when you force him to take someone out shopping. And I did catch the sarcasm in your review, too ;) Of course he adores her! :P I hope I made you happy by choosing Schu's POV again this time. Not that I'll stick with this, of course…

**Japanese words for the uninitiated (in order of appearance):**

Nan da: What is it?

Nani: What?

Niisan: Short form of oniisan (= big brother)

Ne: Something like "hm" or "right"… something you stick at the end of your sentences ;) I tend to do that a lot now -.-

  
  
  



	4. Chapter 4 Of Mondays, Tests and Dates

**Title**: Crawford no imouto

**Author**: Chisha

**Category**: Angst/romance… Since when did the category change? Oh well, there's still a little humor in it as well.

**Warnings**: Original character inserted for the fun of it. :) Also swearing and violence in later chapters.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own any of these characters, except for Emily. Now I wish I owned a few of the others, but that doesn't change the fact that I don't. Damn.

**Author's Note**: Switching POV's again, as usual. 

Chapter 4 – Of Mondays, Tests and Dates 

I loathed Monday mornings. Not because school had to start again, but because I often had to do so much in the weekends that I would usually fall asleep on Sunday evening, to be woken up the next morning by Aya-kun… about to be late for school.   
The same went for this morning. I _knew_ I should have slept more, and the teacher wasn't helping. He was seriously hypnotizing me to fall asleep so he could send me out, I swear. I knew what he'd say. _"No sleeping in class, Tsukiyono!"_ Psh.  
I saw Saito sleeping on his desk as usual, but he had a tall guy in front of him, so he always got away with it. But I wasn't planning to sleep. I could sleep when I got back home. I was sure Aya-kun would let me. 

I awoke from my attempts not to be bored or fall asleep when the door opened and the principal came in. A girl followed him. She looked very posh, her hair up in a loose bun, thin-rimmed glasses on her delicate nose, her school uniform without a single spot or crease. Her hair was dark blue, well-groomed and shiny as in a shampoo commercial. At first glance I thought her to be a little artificial, but then I noticed how natural her movements were – she followed the principal to where the sensei was scribbling on the blackboard, almost with the agility of a large cat, maybe a tiger.

The sensei stopped scribbling and turned to see who had come in, then slightly raised his eyebrows. I hated it when he did that – he was usually annoyed when she did it, this time obviously about someone interrupting his oh-so-interesting and skilled teaching. 

'Something wrong, sir?' he asked softly, but I had developed good hearing due to my nighttime job, and I wasn't that far back in the class. I tried to overhear what they were saying, but the principal wasn't speaking very loudly either and there was some shifting in chairs all around me. Apparently I wasn't the only curious person in class.

Finally, the principal turned, greeted the sensei and left the classroom, leaving the girl behind. Nervous, excited whispers started filling the room as especially the girls started to giggle and discuss what was happening.

The sensei slammed his ruler onto his desk, shocking the class and calming them down at the same time. The whispering ceased abruptly. 

'Class, apparently we have a student from abroad in our class as of today. I want you all to welcome her, and since she's American, help her with the language if she doesn't understand something, alright?!' he half shouted to get the point across.

The class simply nodded and more giggling erupted all around me, and I saw someone nudge Saito with his elbow. The lazy guy woke up, at least sort of, glanced at the girl and then rested his head on his forearms again.

'Well, Emily, please pick a seat, there should be some left,' the sensei encouraged the girl.

I glanced to the empty seat beside me and knew she was going to pick that one as she was already walking into my general direction. Some of the girls giggled as she walked by, softly whispering to each other and pointing occasionally.

'Is it okay for me to sit down here?' she asked in Japanese tinged with an accent that seemed heavier than most foreigners I'd met. 

That means she has arrived only recently. Wasn't there another girl in the shop with an accent like that?

I nodded and made some space by shoving all the scattered notebooks back onto my own desk. 'Go ahead,' I added to the gesture, as friendly as possible. I always tried to look at people without prejudice, even if they were foreign, and even if they looked slightly posh, like Emily did.

She gave me a mysterious looking smile that scared me only slightly before she sat down, placing her bag next to the table, without making a single sound. That kind of surprised me. She did not seem to notice that the rest of the class were staring at her in awe.

'Maybe she's rich,' I heard Miko*, one of the girls, whisper somewhere behind me. 

'Hai, she sure acts like a rich girl,' her friend added.

Emily suddenly turned around and looked Miko's friend straight in the eye. I had to hand it to her; she had courage. If she wanted to acquire some status within this class, she'd better not stand up to the more popular girls, like Miko and her friends. That was something you just could _not_ do as a girl in my class.

Miko's friend gave her a shocked look back.

'That's probably because I _consider_ myself a rich girl,' Emily said in a low, soft voice. It sounded kind of eerie to me. What kind of girl was this?

One that bites, and you have to agree with her. Popular girls can be stingy to new kids, especially if they're foreign, Omi, remember that.

After a moment of silence, Emily faced the blackboard again and got out her books. She glanced to my side and smiled. 

'What's your name?' she whispered.

'Omi,' I whispered back. 'Nice to meet you, I guess, ne?'

A soft chuckle before she nodded, 'Nice to meet you too. Do you mind helping me with the parts of the kanji I don't understand?'

I nodded back and smiled. She was just a normal foreigner that needed help reading "our weird scribbles". 

***

I went home thinking on today, barely paying attention to my surroundings. Emily had needed enough help on the kanji, but she said she was taking classes to learn to read our alphabet, so I wouldn't have to help her for long.

Not that I had actually disliked helping her much. Sure, I would have to spend just a little longer on my homework tonight, but she was nice and polite whenever she asked me something.

She also reminded me a bit of Ouka. Emily had the same hint of arrogance and even the same hair color as Ouka, and wore the same expensive perfume. That meant she was right about being a rich girl, or had a rich boyfriend or father. And Ouka also felt like defending herself against people with sharp remarks, like Emily.  
But on the other hand, Emily didn't resemble Ouka at all. Just on those four things. The rest of Emily was really… refreshing. She was very straight-forward and she knew how to figure things out using logic that sounded simple but was quite complicated. For some odd reason, she never seemed surprised, as if she had known what was going on all the time, but faked surprise sometimes in order to satisfy people. It was a little mysterious.

'Yo, Omi!' Ken was waving his hand in front of my face and I was pulled back to the present. 'What's up with you? Had a bad day in school?'

I smiled at him and he smiled back. 'Iie, not at all! There's this new girl in my class. I was thinking it's the one that stopped by on Saturday, remember her?'

Ken tried to remember, but shook his head, 'Not really. So many girls come by on Saturdays that I tend to lose track of them.'

I chuckled. Ken's head was one big void full of chaos and soccer balls; he _always_ forgot stuff.   
Yohji came in carrying a flower pot – apparently Aya-kun had gotten him to finally do something for his money – and overheard us talking. He cast a big grin at me before dropping the heavy plant. 

This noise caused Aya to rush in immediately and start telling Yohji off. It always surprised me how Yohji sometimes actually listened to him, even though Yohji was the older one. 

'That one was expensive,' Aya muttered to Yohji. 'Clean it up and see if you can save it. Hello, Omi.'

'Hiya Aya-kun!' I beamed at him, trying not to laugh at Yohji's blunder. 'Do you remember the rich-looking girl that came in late Saturday afternoon?' One of them had to remember her, if only for my childish satisfaction.

Aya looked at me for a moment as he kept motioning Yohji to hurry up with the cleaning. 'Oh. Her.'

My satisfaction wasn't big because he sounded a little grumpy about it.

'Well, she's in my class,' I said, trying to get him to be a little nicer about it. 'What's wrong with that, Aya?' Yohji muttered from somewhere below. I heard clattering from the shards of the pot that he was cleaning up. A small bell sounded and Ken rushed to the front of the shop to help the customers that had just come in. 

'I don't trust her,' Aya stated simply.

'I know, she seems a little artificial at first glance,' I agreed. 'But she's nice, I guess. At least _she_ knows how to smile.' I couldn't resist sticking out my tongue at him.

'Don't let yourself be blinded by people's smiles, Omi,' the redhead mysteriously warned me before he went to the front as well to water the plants outside. I wondered what he meant by that, but I shrugged and went downstairs to the basement room to try and do some of my homework before it was my shift.

***

The rest of the week was uneventful, until on Wednesday when the sensei gave us work to study for an unexpected test, on Friday. Now that would not have been a problem, if it wasn't biology, and if Emily actually had been in our class for longer than half a week.

Which was the reason she came rushing to me, brow furrowed from frustration.

'How am I going to do this test without help?' she blurted out.

I chuckled, 'So you heard too?'

Emily nodded and adjusted her glasses, glaring through them fiercely before poking my chest with her finger, forcefully. 'Yes. And I need you to help me. You are the genius of this class, after all, aren't you?'   
I stared at her finger on my chest and she removed it, giggling. 'Gomen ne.'

'That's okay. So you want me to help you study for Friday?' 

A short nod and a dark look before she smiled again. 'My brother is going to kill me if the first grade I get is a bad one.'

How straight-forward she was. Definitely type Ouka, I mused. 'Well, when do you have time?'

'This afternoon if you like. Will one afternoon work?' 

I shrugged. Of course it would, Wednesday afternoons weren't very busy, usually, so there was no problem if I helped her study. School ended earlier for the convenience of certain after-school activities. Every school had to have those, apparently. 'Sure. Where do you wanna study? We can't study in school, there's lots of busy stuff going on after the lessons.'

A grim expression appeared on her face and her jaw was set as she immediately said, 'You can't come to my house.'

I felt my eyebrows shoot up in surprise. It wasn't really _what_ she had said that startled me, but the way she said it. What was so bad about coming to her house; I hadn't even mentioned it!

'Um… Okay. I'm sure my friends won't mind if we study in my apartment…' 

Emily seemed to be relieved because she smiled her trademark slick smile again. 'If it's no trouble.' 

So, she came with me to the Koneko. I got surprised looks from all three of my teammates when they saw what I had brought in. Aya-kun was onto us like a hawk, as if something was wrong with taking people with me. Sure, I'd never done it before, because there had never been any need to. But I'm always glad to help and I saw no reason to not help a new girl out. 

His amethyst glare settled on me, demanding an explanation without him actually saying it. Yeesh, was he uptight. Did he really not trust _anyone_?

'Hiya Aya-kun!' I started, as cheery as possible, but not _too_ cheery because that would make him even more suspicious. 'I'm helping Emily-kun study for a test we have on Friday. I hope that's okay? I already promised.'

I felt Emily shift from one foot to another nervously as Aya's cold eyes settled on her next. 'Sure. Just don't do it in the middle of the shop.' For some reason he was glaring daggers at her, getting a little too close to his shi-ne glare to be safe.

Stepping aside, I gestured at Emily to follow me upstairs to my apartment, to save both me and her from Aya's usualy grumpiness that had gotten a little worse with her around. I was a little surprised as I saw her return Aya's deathglare briefly before following me, haughtily making her way through the shop.   
Yohji whistled but got told off by Aya immediately. I saw Ken put up a thumb as he went back to work. I wondered why. Were they thinking I had a _girlfriend_? Just like them if that was the first and only thing they could think of.

Up in my room I made some room on the low table – it was full of other school books that I hadn't needed that day. Then I grabbed the biology book and opened it at the point where I was supposed to start teaching. 

'Man, your red-haired friend is pretty anti-social,' Emily blurted out suddenly as soon as I looked at her.   
The comment was so straight-forward and sudden that I started to laugh. She frowned at me as if I was crazy. 'Everyone says that,' I managed to explain after I had calmed down. 'You stand up to him pretty well. Most girls just giggle and run.'

Emily's eyes narrowed. 'I can't stand people who boss me around and glare at me like that. I haven't even known him for five minutes and he gives me that cold glare as if I am the lowest creature on the face of the earth. Someone should tell him the truth some day.'

Blinking at her rather confused, I decided to start helping her study. After a while I could even notice how much I was studying myself while explaining. It was like writing it down – you memorized it just by doing it.   
When I went down after two hours to get us both a drink, I was welcomed by Yohji's excessive winking and another glare from Aya. I quickly hurried back up after getting the drinks. I found Emily sitting there with the biology book, concentrating by the looks of it.

Setting down the drinks I glanced at her and noticed her absently rubbing her right temple with one hand. 

'Daijoubu, Emily-kun?'

She looked up, not startled at all, and smiled. 'Sorry Omi-kun. I was focusing on this bit.' She held up the book and pointed at a paragraph that had been particularly hard to explain. 

'I got drinks,' I beamed, and handed her a glass. She thanked me and began to sip from it carefully as she went through the pages once more.

'I think I got it!' Putting down her now empty glass, she handed me my book, a triumphant look plastered on her face.

I grinned and started asking her things – apart from a little language trouble, she had it all memorized. 'You're good!' I complimented her.

'I know,' she chuckled. Then her look got more serious and she stared at me for a few minutes.  
I stared back, it was kind of creepy to be staring in those brown eyes behind those glasses, as if Aya-kun was staring at me. Though this one was female, and the stare was calmer, not as cold, though still icy.   
The look seemed to last longer than it actually did, and when she broke the silence with another quick smile, the look in her eyes never changed. 'Wanna go out with me on Friday?'

Again so straight-forward! I couldn't do anything than stare at her for a moment. _She_ had asked _me_ out? On an actual date? Why?

Emily seemed amused as she saw my face. 'Omi-kun? Did you hear me?'

'Uh… Hai… I heard you. W-why are you asking me out?'

'To celebrate that I passed my first Japanese test, of course! And to thank you…' Her smile got a little nicer, not as cold as before. 'And because I like you…'

I didn't believe her until I saw the soft pink on her cheeks. She was blushing because of me! All those girls that always visited the shops would kill her for being in this room alone, and then she was asking me out too.   
How… special.

'Of course I'll go out with you,' I heard myself stutter, giving in to her invitation, not knowing why, only knowing that I liked it. 

***

Emily passed her test with a grade better than any other foreign girl could have mustered in such a short time. Apparently she was more intelligent than the others could have guessed.

Yohji tried to help me dress up for my date, while Ken stood in the door, leaning against the frame, snickering from time to time at the things Yohji was pointing out to me. At some point I was so annoyed with their teasing that I kicked them both out, asking them if they didn't have anything better to do.   
When I finally got ready I went to where Emily had asked me to pick her up. For some odd reason I couldn't go to her house – she had been very mysterious and jumpy about that, so I decided not to ask her about it – so we had agreed that I would meet her somewhere near the theater. As on all first dates, according to Yohji anyway, we were going to see a movie and maybe to a club afterwards.

I was surprised at the way she was dressed when I met her. I had only seen her in her school uniform so far, but now she looked as if she had come from a fashion magazine. It was obvious that someone had forced her to get rid of her bun, though, because she would never have worn it in a high ponytail like that. Sure, if it hadn't been as casually messy as it was now, she could have done it herself. Maybe someone other than her brother lived in that house as well…

The movie was fun and I was glad she liked it too.

Afterwards we went to have a drink somewhere and I got curious about her odd family situation. At one point I couldn't hold back any longer and just asked.

'So… Your brother is your guardian, Emily-kun?' I took a wild guess.

She nodded, 'He is. He's the only one of our family who lives here, the others are all some place else. I bet your friends at the shop are your guardians, ne?'

'Yeah… They're pretty annoying most of the time but they can be responsible when they have to. Or at least two of them can.' I snickered, thinking of Yohji's amount of responsibility. Zero.

She giggled at this comment. 'Must be fun.'

'Probably more fun than having your brother as your guardian,' I teased.

Emily grinned and looked out the window we were sitting at. It was dark but the sky was clear – no rain for now. 'Yeah… He can now pay me back for everything I did to him when we were younger. He's like ten years older than me.'

'Wow, ten years…'

'But there's others – his housmates. They're strange, but one of them is pretty cool.'

That last one must have helped her just like Yohji tried to help me today then…

I noticed her staring at me and when I looked back she started blushing lightly. I smiled to make her feel more comfortable – I knew almost for sure that she had a crush on me by then, and I couldn't help but notice that this date had been very fun. I liked being with her. Did that count?  
Yohji would say it would. Ken would say it would. Aya would say I couldn't trust her. I decided to listen to Ken and Yohji for now. 

'Omi-kun… I had fun tonight,' she said softly, suddenly shy. 

'Me too.' I just _knew_ I was starting to blush from that stare and the whole situation. 'It's ah… it's a good thing you had fun too,' I stuttered. I could slap myself in the face just then. I was a mumbling idiot! I had to stop talking right now or I'd make a big fool out of myself. How did Yohji do these things at _least _thrice** a week?

But before I would babble nonsense all over her, she grabbed my hand in both her own, making me look at her.

'You know, Omi-kun… You're much different than most American guys.'

'I-I am? In what way?'   
_Shut up, Omi, shut **up**._

'I don't know… You're more considerate, actually look at people's personalities…'   
How could she have found all this out in just a simple week?

'… You're just cute,' she admitted.

Okay… I could live with that. I felt the blood rise to my face some more as she said it. Especially when she leaned over and I had a real close look at her eyes. Then, she got even closer and simply kissed me. On the mouth. I tasted her lips on mine, and it didn't even last a few seconds, but seemed to last for a whole minute. When she was almost done I closed my eyes and gave in. She owned me and I had no idea why, but I had to see that I got to own her as much as she had me in the near future or I'd lose control.

Therefore, when she released me, I kissed _her_.

   
 

*Any of you remember Miko? Look for her in episode 16 of Weiß Kreuz. She was about to be burned alive! *sadistic, high-pitched, Farfarello-like giggle*

** I wuv that word. Thrice.

~~~

**Author's Note: **Wow. This was a pretty long one and took me even longer to finish. I hope it was worth the wait! I'm not happy with some of the conversation and setup in this chapter but that's about the best I can pull off so far. I'll try and get better.

Lenihan: Hey I see you changed your name. And Holy shit another one of those long reviews! Nagi's reason: he hates people. He doesn't want Schu in his room, and the more people are in Schwarz, the more uncomfortable he gets. So I guess you were half right. Thanks for liking that chapter!  
Skylighter: You'll probably never read this, but thanks for liking how I did Crawford. ^_^ And yeah, Omi, cause I like him =P  
Misura: Thank you! Sorry for picking on poor Schu like that. I felt kinda sorry for him afterwards, too.****

The Japanese that I don't know but love to butcher around for this chapter

**Hai                  **Yes

**Iie                   **No

**Gomen ne            **Sorry

**Daijoubu            **Are you okay


End file.
